Medicine administering spoon



Nov. 9, 1948.. A. cs. McNEILL 2,453,525

MEDICINE ADMINISTERING-SPOON 1 Filed Sept. 22, 1945 E q WWW/04% r i i HVVENTDR.

A LBEZT GEORGE MQA/E/L 1.

Patented Nov. 9, 1948 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. 3 a 2 ,453,53 a

MEDICINE ADMINISTERING SPOQN Albert George McNeil]; Philadelphia, 2a., assignor it to Bachmann Bros., Inc., Philadelphia, Pa a corporation of Pennsylvania. Application September 22, 1945, SeflalNo. 617,971

This invention relates to a medicine administerlng spoon which is designed primarily for use in administering medicine to very small children or animals who cannot balancethe advantages to be obtained from corrective medicine against the momentary unpleasantness of the taste of the medicine.

Too, children of more advanced age may sometimes be relatively fractious, and in such cases the use of the ordinary teaspoon to administer medicines is highly unsatisfactory, due to the fact that the medicine may be spilled and damage the clothing, or at least fail to accomplish its desired purpose.

A broad object of this invention is theprovision of a medicine administering spoon which can be used to measure desired quantities, and then be used directly as an injector instead of being offered to the patient to .take.

A more limited object of this invention is the provision of a medicine administering spoon in which the medicine can be held free from spillage hazards and yet ready for instantaneous administration to the patient at precisely the right time.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as this description proceeds in connection with the accompanying drawings in which-- Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional view with port ons indicated in side elevation.

Figure 2 is a top plan view.

Figure 3 is a perspective view illustrating the provision for cleaning the medicine containing chamber.

Referring now to Figure 1, my medicine administering spoon is formed preferably of poly styrene or other material commonly called plastic material, capable of withstanding any solvent effects of the normal antiseptic or sterilizing solutions.

My spoon is provided with a bowl 5 connected by a shank 6 to a hollow handle I. 5

Opening into the lower portion of the bowl 5 is a conduit 8 which extends through the shank 6 and communicates at its opposite end with a medicine chamber 9 formed in the hollow handle 1. Adjacent the point where conduit 8 communicates with the chamber 9, and on the upper portion of handle 1 so as to open in the same direction as the bowl 5, a boss I!) having a vent opening H extending therethrough, is provided. A removable plug l2 having a knurled periphery l3 closes the end of chamber 9 opposite the end which is in direct communication with conduit 8 and vent opening ll.

'lClairns. (Cl. Bil-e125? 2 From the foregoing description and drawings,

iti's apparent that my medicine administering spoon can be held in the position indicated in Figure 1 while medicine is poured directly into the bowl 5 while a finger is held over the vent opening H Thus; with correctsizingofthebowl 5 and conduit8, a known amount of medicine can be measured, and when the finger is removed from vent opening II, the medicine will flow into the chamber 9 when the spoon is tipped slightly in a clockwise direction from that shown in Figure 1,

When the medicine has gone into the chamber 9, the finger is replaced upon the boss ID to close vent opening II, and then the spoon may be maneuvered into administering position and held ready for instant release of the finger from the boss l0, when the medicine will run from chamber 9 down to vent opening I l and the bowl 5 will then serve to funnel the medicine into the mouth of the patient.

Due to the fact that boss 10 is raised from the wall of handle I, there is no contact between the finger tip and the medicine in chamber 9, and plug l2 may be removed from the chamber 9 to wash out the chamber and conduit 8 so that it may be sterilized for subsequent use.

While I have shown and described my preferred form of construction, I do not wish to be limited to the precise details shown and described herein, but wish to avail myself of all variations coming properly within the scope of theappended claims.

What is claimed is: i

1. A medicine administering spoon comprising a bowl, a handle having a medicine chamber therein, a conduit communicating between the interior of said bowl and saidmedicine chamber, the upper portion of said handle being formed with a vent opening, said vent opening being in the form of a boss of suflicient length to arrest enough air to maintain a bubble of air in the vent opening which will serve to prevent the .medicine from contacting the finger of the user a bowl, a handle connected with said bowl and" having a medicine chamber therein, vent means:

for admitting air to said chamber to permit ready flow of liquid medicine from the the bowl of the spoon.

6. A spoon for administering liquid medicine:

having a bowl and a communicating medicine chamber in the handle thereof, a bossformed on said handle near the outlet from saidchamber and having a vent opening therein, suchboss being of sufficient height as to arrest enough air to maintain a bubble in said vent opening which will prevent the medicine from contacting the finger of the user placed over said vent opening.

7. A spoon for administering liquid medicine having a bowl and a handle, the handle having a chamber therein communicating with said how], vent means for admitting air to said chamber to facilitate the flow of liquid from said chamber, such venting means includinga boss having a vent opening therein, the boss being of sufiicient height asto arrest sufiicient air to maintain a bubble of air therein which will prevent the r liquid contacting the finger of the. user when placed oversaid vent opening, and a removable chamber. into ,1,

closure for said chamber permitting cleaning and rinsing of the spoon.

ALBERT GEORGE McNEILL.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Date Number Name 107,419 Spencer Sept. 13, 1870 253,146 Wilson 'Jan. 31, 1882, 1,000,178 Kahl Aug. 8, 1911 2,252,119 Edmonds Aug. 12, 1941 

